STUDENTS ARE SHOWN here using the new track at Hockinson Heights Elementary after it’s completion this spring.
When a security fence went up this spring at Hockinson Heights Elementary, it cut off a 55-yard long stretch of the school’s gravel track.
Still the students continued running and walking it, earning fitness prizes and building friendships, but turning the stretch of grass beside the new fence into a muddy trail.
“They were walking through mud puddles,” said Jack Sarkinen, whose daughter attends Hockinson Heights and son will enter kindergarten in the fall. “It definitely was a need. They were walking into school rooms with muddy shoes after recess.” The school looked into replacing the missing track and received a bid for $8,600 – way more than its available funds. So, Elementary School Principal Lisa Swindell and Lead Secretary Julie Paso took the problem to Sarkinen, that Hockinson dad, who had attended Hockinson schools himself and also has eight nieces and nephews who are Hornets and Hawks.
“He got energized,” Swindell said.
An employee of Karvonen Sand & Gravel of Battle Ground, Sarkinen came out and gave the school a break-even bid – less than half the cost of the previous one. Then he started mentioning the project to other members of the Hockinson community.
“As I bumped into people who had kids in Hockinson, I’d just mention it to them,” he said. “Before you know it, virtually the whole thing was covered. The whole community pitched in once they heard the school had the need.”
At the end of April, Karvonen Sand & Gravel arrived at HHES with an excavator and skid steer to strip off the sod. They hauled it away in a dump truck, laid down fabric and piled six inches of rock into the path.
“It’s better than we even imagined,” said Swindell, describing the sandy nine-foot-wide track. “It really was a beautiful story, how it evolved – a community member who cared and encouraged others to help.”
Manny Melo, PE teacher for grades third through fifth, said the track is about way more than earning “fitness feet” – colorful plastic feet the students display on keychains – for the numbers of laps they take around the track.
“I’ve had parents email me saying, ‘my kid made two or three new friends this year because of the fitness path,’” Melo said.
Whatever its draw, use of that track is contagious.
“When one kid does it, it leads to more kids in that classroom running,” Melo said. “They get out there and run their little hearts off.”
Thanks to the Hockinson community, the school’s track is complete.
